Skid.



imrrnn sr rns PATENT orrion THOMAS H. MONAHAN AND JOSEPH W. MONAHAN, OF PROVIDENCE,

' RHODE ISLAND.

SKID.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 5, 1906.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, THOMAS H. MONA- HAN and JOSEPH W. MONAHAN, citizens of the United States of America, and residents of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Skids, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in skids, so called-that is, a portable device employed by teamsters and others for facilitating the handling of heavy articles or packages, as, for example, in loading filled barrels into vehicles, drays, &c., as well as for unloading them therefrom.

In skids of the class referred to it is usual to make the two parallel rails or track-bars thereof of wooden beams, the ends being provided with metallic hook and point members. We are aware, too, that all-metal skids have been produced prior to our invention. In such former devices, however, the longitudinal bars or frame thereof were made up of a plurality of members or parts bolted or otherwise rigidly secured together. Such former devices, while possessing requisite strength and stiffness, were unduly heavy and comparatively expensive to manufacture.

The object we have in view is to produce an all-metal portable skid in which the weight is materially less even than the metaltipped wooden ones having corresponding capacity, our device being comparatively inexpensive to manufacture and capable of being readily handled by the user, as in attaching it to or detaching it from the vehicle.

In carrying out our invention we employ a pair of parallel comparatively thin or light channel-bars of metal, said bars being placed edgewise and laterally separated from each other and also connected at intervals by suitable cross-ties or spreaders. The front or upper end of each bar has a hook or pintle welded thereto, the opposite end of the bar having a similarly-produced sharpened point adapted when in use to rest u on the surface of the pavement, sidewalk, c c., as the case may be. The rib members extend outwardly from the web at an angle along the upper and lower edges of the bars and merge into the said hook and point members. The ribs form a self-guiding track or runway for the barrels while being moved thereon.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a front side elevation, in reduced scale, representing an all-metal skid embody ing our improvement. Fig. 2 is a corresponding plan view, the end portions of one of the bars being in section; and Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken on line :20 9c of Fig. 1.

In our improved skid A we use a pair of rolled longitudinally-extending parallel channel-bars (1, having suitable depth or width, each consisting of the thin web member I) and the upper and lower integral rib members 0 c. The ribs extend from the front side or face of the web and at an angle therewith. We prefer to have the ribs slightly curved or convex transversely and divergent with respect to each other, substantially as represented in Fig. 3. One end of the barbeing the upper end when in use-is fashioned to form an attaching hook or pintle (1, whereby the device may be readily attached to a dray or vehicle in a well-known way. The other end of the bar is tapered to form a comparatively sharp tip a. At suitable intervals the laterallyseparated bars a a are rigidly united by the combined spreaders and cross-ties t.

We do not claim, broadly, as our invention an all-metal skid. In our improved skid the channel-iron constituting the side frames is very light and having the longitudinal flanges 0 thereof inclined or at an angle to the web, the members (i and 6 being welded to the re spective ends of the frame, as before stated. By means of said construction the device possesses greater strength and durability, yet being light and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture. The beveled flanges when in use form self-centering or self-positioning guide members for conducting barrels or other packages while moving thereon and at the same time reducing the area of actual contact, thus lessening the friction.

We claim as our invention and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent 1. As an improved article of manufacture, the metallic skid A herein described, the same consisting of the two laterally-separated parallel channel-bar frame members a, each having upper and lower longitudinally-extending flanges projecting outwardly at an angle from one side of the web, a fixed hook or attaching member located at one end of the frame, and suitably-disposed cross-ties interangle, substantially as hereinbefore described IO posed between and rigidly uniting said frame and for the purpose set forth.

members. Signed at Providence, Rhode Island, this 2. A skid of the character described, hav- 26th day of January, 1906. 5 ing a pair of connected laterally-separated THOMAS H. MONAHAN. channel-iron frame members a, the upperand JOSEPH W. MONAHAN. lower edges of each frame member having a Witnesses:

longitudinal rib or flange extending out- Gno. H. REMINGTON, Wardly from the Web at an upwardly-inclined CALVIN H. BROWN. 

